Austin Harrouff is transported by detectives to the Martin County Jail from St. Mary's Hospital on October 3, 2016. Harrouff, who allegedly fatally stabbed a Martin County couple in their home on August 15th, has officially been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)

As Mina Harrouff searched with family and friends for her son, Austin, on Aug. 15, 2016, she came upon a crime scene about a block from her ex-husband’s Martin County home.

She walked up to a deputy and asked if investigators had seen her son, then 20. He was wearing white shorts and a blue polo shirt, she said.

“I said, ‘What’s going on?’ And they said it’s a domestic dispute. So I’m like, ‘Well, it can’t be him,’ ” she said to investigators, remembering that night. “I was so grateful it wasn’t. But then it turned out it (was him).”